2008: Conan vs. Jon Stewart? 14 Oct 2005
19 comments Latest by Online casino btdino
Forget Hillary vs. Jeb. According to Conan on the Couch, a New York Magazine profile of the soon-to-be Tonight Show host, 2008 may bring an even more interesting showdown: Conan vs. Jon Stewart in the next late-night talk show war.
O’Brien made his decision without waiting for what will most probably be a search for David Letterman’s replacement around the same time Leno steps down. And Jon Stewart is the most obvious candidate for that seat. By the way, if you want to get on O’Brien’s good side, do not bring up Jon Stewart (who failed at his own late-night show in 1994), as it makes him bristle at the unfairness of Stewart’s comedic hegemony — he won two Emmys last week — for a far less complex, toilsome, and popular show, at 1.4 million viewers per night. Stewart’s contract is up in 2008 (though Viacom could conceivably move him from Comedy Central to CBS whenever the need arose), setting the stage for a potentially sensational grudge match.
19 comments so far (Jump to latest)
Dan Boland 14 Oct 05
It will be interesting, considering the same crowd seems to like both Conan and the Daily Show. But I remember Jon Stewart’s talk show on MTV… it was unwatchable, so frickin’ stupid. So who knows how he’ll do. My money is on Conan, as long as NBC keeps letting him be a big retard.
d 14 Oct 05
Conan is such a hack with his wow-I-sure-didn’t-see-that-easy-and-trite-punchline-coming-even-before-the-joke-was-over delivery. I really don’t know why any of those shows are still on the air.
Comedy Central is the only network that the Daily Show belongs on; forget prime-time networks.
Brad 14 Oct 05
I can’t see Jon Stewart doing a Letterman/Leno style talk show. He’s found his groove, it won’t last forever, but going to a new format would be the end of his reign. He and Conan occupy different spaces in the mind. If Jon moved to talk-show format and when head to head against Conan, he would die a sad short-man-death.
Anonymous Coward 14 Oct 05
Will the Daily Show’s luster be diminished with spinoff shows from former cast members that will also cover politics and deliver jokes in the exact - same - style?
Tony 14 Oct 05
They already tried to move the Daily Show to CBS when Craig Kilborn took on the Late Late Show. We all saw how well that worked out…
FineJames 14 Oct 05
Bring back that dude who gets to play with Vanna White all the time
Ken Leebow 14 Oct 05
It’s not even close, Jon Stewart is light-years ahead of Conan. Jon Stewart could give the master (Johnny Carson) “a run for his money”. On second thought, maybe not.
JF 14 Oct 05
No one beats Carson.
Darrel 14 Oct 05
I never understood how the ‘show’ had more value than the ‘host’. To me, It’s the David Letterman show, Conan show, and Jay Leno show. The selling point is the person, not the set.
As for Stewart, TDS is a much different format…one he obviously excels at. Personally, I find him much more valuable interviewing political and academic folks than the next Lindsay Lohan.
Dave Simon 14 Oct 05
Conan for me if he brings Andy back. :)
Stewart, in my mind, has gotten less funny as time goes on. But he’s also become much more one-sided politically. Sure, he still pokes fun at both parties, but he makes no bones about where he is in the grand scheme of things.
Besides, the silly stories they’d send Beth, Mo Rocca, etc. to do were what I watched for. I haven’t watched for a while, but Jon Stewart wasn’t the reason I watched. I liked the Daily Show when it was Kilborn.
I FINALLY AGREE WITH YOU 14 Oct 05
JF - i agree, Carson Daly OWNZ ALL AZZ!!!!
Jimmy Kimmel says 14 Oct 05
Damn it!!
Don Wilson 14 Oct 05
If they know what’s good for them they won’t destroy a good thing.
Peter Larson 14 Oct 05
No one can rescue a bad guest like Conan can (especially not Leno). That will be the difference in the showdown. That and he’s not political so he won’t have half the country on his bad side.
Garrick Van Buren 14 Oct 05
They both have their own shows now, and by the time the contracts expire nobody will be watching ‘live’ tv. We’ll just download their shows then next day via iTunes and watch it over lunch. No muss, no fuss.
Ruy 14 Oct 05
Jon sucks with guests and Conan’s opening shtick is tired.
Wouldn’t it be great to just get each hosting the parts of the show they are good at?
Kyle 14 Oct 05
I can’t imagine Stewart heading to a network channel. He has experienced unparrelled success on CC, in part because of the freedom it allows him. I normally wouldn’t be so optimistic in these regards, but Stewart really does seem different from the rest, in a way I haven’t seen before.
Oh, and I agree with Dave Simon, to an extent. It would be nice if Stewart wasn’t so politically driven.
Dan Hartung 15 Oct 05
Stewart is finally home at TDS. Yeah, I hated his MTV talk show — he tried to affect a much too pretentious, academic tone for the channel and his guests. But then years later I saw him fill in for Tom Snyder (when they were gearing up for Conan) and he was terrific (and obviously he’d been imitating Snyder at MTV and I hadn’t noticed before). I think he’d be a brilliant host of a more in-depth program, but then that isn’t something network TV is interested in. Too bad CC probably won’t let him have a second interview show.
Conan is truly a hero for sticking to his guns and building his popularity from “Conan Who?”